Without the benefit of modern forecasting, I would have been caught totally off-guard by this blizzard. Nothing about the weather on Saturday or even the rain and flurries earlier on Sunday would have indicated to my ignorant self that a thick blanket of snow was coming. It is easy to be similarly ignorant and caught off guard by the spiritual weather that we experience.
Jesus said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming;’ and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather;’ and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?” (Luke 12:54-56)
The average person at the Lord’s time was probably better at discerning the weather by reading the signs than the average person today who can rely on a forecast on their phone, but the Lord was saying that they should have spent more time learning how to discern the spiritual signs of the times than the natural signs of the weather. This seems true of us today too. How many conversations about the weather have we had last week? How much planning did we do to be prepared for the blizzard? On the other hand, how many conversations did you have this week about your spiritual state? How much planning did you do to be spiritually prepared for what you’re dealing with internally?
The teachings for the New Church tell us “It is the mark of someone wise to be aware of which ends are present in themselves. …. [A person] ought also to take note of the varying states they pass through, for those states cause their feelings to vary considerably” (Arcana Coelestia 3796). There is wisdom in paying attention to what’s going on within us — the goals that we’re pursuing and the changing states we experience. The time leading up to Easter can be a good time for that kind of introspection.
Introspection takes time and we might feel that we don’t have the time for such things. Sometimes we need to give something up in order to have time. Lent started last week and it’s traditionally a time when people give up something until Easter. It doesn’t matter if you missed the start of Lent, you can start a period of giving something up whenever you’d like. Today is a good day. Imagine if, for a few weeks, you gave up pulling out your phone in every spare moment (while using the bathroom, while eating meals, while waiting for things). Would you have more time to breathe and reflect on your state?
You can have the time to discern the state of your spiritual weather, and the Lord encourages you to take that time. When you do that, you might be better prepared to respond to whatever your internal weather is, and you might be better able to feel some promise of new warmth coming.
You can find resources to help you with this work at brynathynchurch.org/lent.